Among Strangers is the newest work from playwright Angie Farrow. Her show last year, The Politician’s Wife, had given me a lot of think about, and I was looking forward to seeing her newest offerings. Among Strangers is a production of three different plays, Breaking News, Esther, and August Moon, based off Farrow’s conversations with women aged 15-20 about how they see themselves in this world, these ‘changing times’ as the programme describes.
 
Breaking News centres around a young woman, Jolene, who is at the height of her journalistic career and feels the pressure of maintaining perfection. Esther portrays the return of a girl who went missing for three years; but is she really the same Esther? And finally, August Moon, a tale about the titular character who loses a mother. This is no dire portrait of loss, though; instead, we get a comedy for the conclusion of this showcase. It’s a curious experiment and as I sit, I avidly anticipate the beginning.

​“What room do [teenagers] need?” director Samuel Phillips asks, and after watching Punk Rock, I’ve spent a lot of time collecting my thoughts, considering this question closely. Punk Rock hits close to home; it’s a story about teenagers and how they cope with loss, bullying, fear, and friendships, and as such, it easily translates its British setting to our New Zealand context. The cast and crew deliver a knockout punch, producing a performance that forces you to consider teens’ experiences with mental illness -- including, possibly, your own experiences. Punk Rock is unsettling as hell: challenging and sometimes difficult to watch, but all in service of a greater goal. It left me deeply pensive about my place in these issues.